The tide is turning...

But the ocean stays the same. Excellent Online is about to undergo an epic overhaul. If 2007 proved one thing, it's that we admins have let this site quietly slip away from us. Be it advancing years, the chores of life, the creepy word "responsibilities" that I've tried to fight for most of my time on this planet... we can blame whatever we want. Well, I guess we can't blame one thing:

PASSION. We could easily say "Hey, our heart's not in it anymore." But that's crap. The music of our time has defined us as people. It's what initially brought us together, it's what has forged the friendships -- be it in the real world or this very community -- that I hope hold strong forever.

E.M. Forster once wrote, "The kingdom of music is not the kingdom of this world." It was the power of music that brought us all together under this banner, and it's the power of music that will NEVER let this site die.

I hate change. Detest it. When friends move away or even get new jobs, parts of me cringe. So to totally do away with this site in favor of our new launch soon -- turning Excellent into a news-collecting aggregate where stories are voted on and published by YOU -- makes my stomach churn a little. But when I stop to think about it, it brings me solace.

Solace because the thing we care about -- the music -- will still be here. Different faces may pop up on the cover of NME, sure -- but there will always be a band out there to take our breath away, there will always be an artist whose words speak to our very soul, there will always be an amazing record we can use to escape the doldrums of a cloudy Sunday afternoon. And while the site as you know it will soon become radically different, it's our passion for music that will always stay the same -- it's our security blanket through life, and I couldn't imagine a day without it.

Our e-mail discussion list will continue to flourish, and the members of Excellent -- stretched out across the globe, some who have even met and married through this site -- are still as passionate as ever about the tunes that shape our playlists, that shape our lives. We couldn't have done it all these years without you, and we dedicate the legacy of this site to all of you.

It's sad when logging onto Excellent has become nostalgic in its own right.

We've let this site pretty much die, and that's pretty much sad. I don't even know what I can say on the subject while still keeping my shit together. I can't put my finger on why, almost without a word spoken between the lot of us, the admins of Excellent just sorta stopped updating things around here.

I guess I can offer some theories...

Theory #1 is one that makes my eyebrows curl. "WE GREW UP." God, I hope not. But even I, king of all lamer music nerds, have to make the concession that I haven't really gotten the tingly feelings in my armhairs over music much this year. Lord knows I've tried -- I'm still wasting most of my paychecks away on ill-conceived music purchases. But... the vigor just isn't there anymore. Back in the day, if a new release got delayed and I had to wait an extra week for it, it was a Major Crisis in My Life. Nowadays, ehhh, not so much. I can deal. As I type, there's a pile of CD's on my desk some 30 deep that I've bought yet haven't even cracked the plastic on. I'm still a spending fool, even if I'm an old one, so I'm nixing this theory.

Theory #2 is that We Got Busy. That's the honest truth of the matter. Liz (who I sadly don't speak with hardly ever these days) has an amazing design job in Chicago. Ajay's rocking his tech gig out in California. And me? Well, I'm now a paid newspaper columnist, and most of my writing free time must go towards that (though, admittedly, it's nice to hop onto Excellent and type the word FUCK without fear of an editor having a massive stroke.) So, yeah, growing up DOES equal other priorities that take away from the playtime we once spent fruitfully on Excellent. Proudly being a non-commercial site meant that we could never do this for a living, so the odds of it turning into a lame duck site were good, I suppose.

Theory #3, though, is the most troubling, though -- probably because, at least as far as I'm concerned, it's the right one. This theory is that Excellent Has Slowed To A Crawl Because The Music We Cherished From The Get-Go Has Dried Up. No matter what we've done to roll with the times, Excellent was founded as a wayward home for Stateside fans of UK indie music. And, well, UK indie music pretty much is a dead turd these days.

When Britpop waned out of the picture, we -- along with every other music journalist in the world -- told you not to worry. Scenes come and go, but great music is forever. But these days it's almost as if the entire concept has vaporized. Okay, sure, there's a lot of great bands out there making some fantastic sounds... but anything as captivating as the UK scenes of 88-96? Hardly. Bloc Party are a fantastic band, Kaiser Chiefs have their moments, Arctic Monkeys are fun, and even Coldplay and Keane (two bands that I don't much like) have their good bits. But to think that any of those bands would be worthy of launching a web site to celebrate any kind of UK "scene"? Laughable. Do any of today's top UK names hold the excitement of a Happy Mondays? A My Bloody Valentine? Pulp? An Oasis? Not hardly.

Not that we need a "scene" in order to function -- Lord knows we rallied against the Brit mags for trying to constantly invent scenes back in the day -- but God help me, at least the media hype used to provide some excitement. These days the NME is forced to rely on the heroin binges of Pete Doherty and Amy Winehouse to sell issues, and that's just pathetic.

Perhaps a lot of this is also due to the state of music retail. How many of you still go to record stores every week? How many of you give a shit about album packaging anymore? With iTunes or a menu of lawless options at procuring music electronically, music has become a disposable commodity. And it's certainly hard to build hype around something like that. We started this website because music meant something to us far more than the average human. Yet the same internet we cherished to bring us closer together as fans has wrecked the visceral excitement of the whole thing. Nothing will ever replace the memories of staying up til 4 a.m. just to call Sister Ray Records in Soho to place an overseas order. Driving 3 hours to the north suburbs of Chicago just to pick up a Ride EP at the Turntable. Begging the local bookseller to import copies of NME, Melody Maker, Select, Q, etc. It's just history now. Want an import these days? Spend 5 minutes on the net and its yours. The thrill is gone.

Nothing drives the nail home quite like Rhino's "Brit Box" that just came out. Every band, every scene within a scene, every cultural touchstone that lit my heart ablaze for over a decade... can now be yours for the low price of $59.99. And hey, it lights up and blinks, too.

Is this the down side of aging? That the music which provided me with an unlimited vitality is now retro kitsch, boxed up for the kids who think Snow Patrol is pretty cool and want to see what England had to offer a decade ago?

Bands that I consider vital are now museum-ed up in a box set. Artists like Miki from Lush are doing interviews along the lines of "I'm a grey haired office worker now, but whoo, those days were something, eh?" I'm sorry, but I just don't like thinking of Lush as the music of yesteryear. As shallow as it is, my instinct is to say fuck-you, Miki -- I don't want you working in an office. I don't want Martin Carr's Facebook to say "Unemployed and looking for work." I don't want to find out that Bloc Party is being managed by one of the kids from Menswear.

I've always hated change. Maybe this is why.

I'm not a total pessimist, though, I'm really not. There's gobs of great new music being released every week. It's just a different era, and things are handled differently these days. Sure, I've got my iPod full of apparantly OLD FOGEY music now, but I've got plenty of new stuff on there, too. And not all of our aging heroes are desk jockeys these days -- The Verve are sounding brilliant on tour, My Bloody Valentine are actually claiming new material's less than a year away, and bands like Oasis keep soldiering on.

Music will never die. This site might. But I'm in no hurry to take it down. We've still got one hell of an active e-mail discussion list, and maybe we'll gradually return to frequent posting again. Maybe I'll go to the record store next week and my armhairs will tingle at the most unexpected of releases.

Yeah, we know. Excellent's turning into a dead horse and we havent updated the site in weeks. What can we say, sometimes life gets in the way.

Sadly, it takes a tragic event to get us back in the posting mood.

Factory Records founder TONY WILSON has died of a heart attack.

Imagine one man... ONE guy... who in 58 short years:

- Championed punk rock and arguably was the catalyst for punk to explode in the UK
- Created a record label where the artists had complete creative & financial freedom
- Signed Joy Division
- Was a moving force in Joy Division staying together after Ian to become New Order
- Signed the Happy Mondays - Created the Hacienda club and effectively created the Madchester explosion

And, well, he could be a bit of a prat, too -- but he'd be the first to tell you.

With a career of unbridled highs and flamboyant lows, Tony Wilson was one of the most exciting things to happen to music, PERIOD.

Stop reading this and go watch "24 Hour Party People" (the movie loosely based on his life) right now.

Yeah, yeah... I know it's been awhile...

But holy crow, THE VERVE are back together!

In a statement, the band -- and the ORIGINAL line-up of the band at that, including once-estranged guitarist Nick McCabe -- say they're getting back together "for the joy of the music."

A winter tour is planned, and word is that new material is being recorded for perhaps a new album!

If you want a solid, evil dose of hilarity, check out THIS THREAD on a local Denton, TX music forum.

The story goes like this: A band called The Yearbook plays on a bill in April with some local Denton bands at a small, non-paying venue. Irked at their lack of payment at the end of the night, The Yearbook heist a small practice amp that isn't theirs and sell it at a nearby pawn shop for gas money.

What The Yearbook didn't know is that the amp belonged to a beloved Denton musician with a LOT of friends. After discovering the amp in the pawn shop, the Denton kids checked receipts and figured out who stole/pawned it.

Thus begins the Denton smear campaign against The Yearbook. Forum posts... Photoshopped pics... Myspace bulletins urging other venues NOT to book The Yearbook. More accusations of the guys from The Yearbook stealing tip money and generally being douchebags...

And finally ending up with admissions, apologies, and a FedEx cash payment for the amp by the band.